Dominic Jermey, who took over as chief executive of UK Trade & Investment (UTKI) last year, has a special place for India in his heart (Mere dil me India ki khaas jagah hai). In his first trade visit to India last week, Jermey sought to develop closer UK-India links. Jermey, accompanied by a high-level business delegation, discussed UTKI initiatives in India with FE’s Siddhartha P Saikia. Excerpts:

Which are the core areas or projects where UKTI would be willing to invest in India?

It has been a promising start to this new year with the launch of the ‘GREAT Collaborations’ campaign between the UK and India. Our campaign complements Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign and it will showcase and promote collaborations of mutual benefit to India and the UK across a range of sectors, such as energy, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, financial services and infrastructure.

The first showcase of ‘GREAT Collaboration’ is the partnership between UK’s BP plc and India’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) in developing and producing much-needed energy.

I started my India visit at Bangalore, leading a delegation of British businesses operating in the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals sector. They are keen to partner with Indian companies. The UK by far is the largest manufacturer, research and developer on bio and pharma products in Europe. Such collaborations with Indian businesses are absolutely essential for our vision to strengthen this relationship further.

The Modi government aims to aggressively develop infrastructure. What is UKTI’s expertise in this sector?

During the Chancellor’s visit last year, he announced a package of financial measures to support infrastructure development, including a £1-billion line of export credits, and technical assistance for companies wishing to draw on UK expertise. This will help progress on key infrastructure projects.

During my meeting with commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 11, we discussed how we can increase and support the Indian government’s development agenda and identified some clear ways to do that. We support India’s aspiration around ease of doing business and want to help realise that by sharing our experience and learnings from the UK. For example, infrastructure financing in helping India develop Smart and Sustainable cities. Commerce ministry officials have assured us that they will remove hurdles facing our businesses here. UK companies are well-known for their master planning, engineering, and project management skills and I am pleased that some of them have been involved with prestigious projects here, for instance in master planning of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor and some of the proposed new industrial cities; Delhi and Mumbai airports; Delhi Metro Rail, to name a few.

Do you think India’s business environment is conducive to bet your investments here? How is it different from the previous UPA regime?

These are exciting times for businesses in India. The Indian market already attracts UK investors; we are the biggest G-20 investor country in India. This visit enabled me to discuss opportunities for further collaboration with government and industry leaders to achieve our joint ambition of making more ‘GREAT’ things together, in support of PM Modi’s pro-business agenda.

To what extent do you see the trade between India and the UK expanding in the next five years?

Prime Minister Modi has rightly called the UK-India partnership an “unbeatable combination”, there is so much the UK and India can achieve together. The UK’s total goods and services trade with India in 2013 was £17.5 billion, an increase of 6.6 % on 2012 (£15.4 bn). We are proud that the UK already has 10% share in India’s total FDI. Last year the UK invested $3.2 billion in India, more than any other G-20 country and more than Japan ($1.7 billion) and the US (just under $1billion), who are ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively, combined. We have also consolidated our position as the largest European investor in India with our most active areas spread across healthcare, energy, education, infrastructure and ICT.

With an eye on boosting our commercial ties we have made some joint announcements: The India-UK Financial Partnership: this will examine key priorities across the financial services industries, and will make recommendations for deepening financial cooperation.